One of these points came a few years ago when a disturbing practice came to light. It is very similar to insider trading but was not insider trading because it was legal, and it was legal because those who made the laws wanted it to be legal because they were making lots and lots of money. You see if someone in congress was about to make a law making it harder or easier on an industry they could buy or sell stock in related firms and make a mint off the laws they were about to enact. This was a ridiculous practice. It was clearly wrong, and both sides were equally guilty of abusing this opportunity.
So the people from all political points of view came together and said this is wrong and demanded change. So in 2012 the poloticians from both sides of the isle came together and passed a law making many of those inside deals against the law. Sounds good right? Well it sounded good but as is too often the case it might have sounded better than it really is. You see a while back the congress slipped in a brief to the courts that got little attention. Basicly what happened was congress was about to make a law that would affect the health care industry. I believe it had something to do with medicare. So they told a special class of lobbyist called political intelligence lobbyists about it. They told their companies so that they could make the appropriate moves to gain off this intelligence. This seems like the congressman are giving inside information to their supporters to give their supporters an unfair advantage. That seems like political insider trading to me. So the SEC decided to investigate. This is where congress slipped in their brief. They are basically arguing to the courts that their is a separation of power issue and the SEC has no right to investigate the congress or the lobbyists that they rely upon.
I love this logic. The make a law making political insider trading illegal but claim there is no enforcement mechanism in the constitution to let any one enforce the law. Wow that is a brilliant yet a bit maniacal plan eh?
No I don't know all of the constitutional issues here, but there has to be away to make the practice illegal and then enforce the law. Even if it takes an amendment to the constitution, which I don't think it should, I would support it if it meant we could kill this ridiculous practice.
This is something I think just about everyone should be able to support regardless of ideological or political alignments. This practice is stupid and dangerous and has to be stopped. Let's all stand up to both parties on this one.